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Upcoming Events

The Cannes Festival is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is considered the most prestigious film festival in the world and is one of the most publicized. The invitation-only festival is held annually (usually in May) at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès.

The Kentucky Derby is a horse race held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The race is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbreds with a length of one and a quarter miles (2 km) at Churchill Downs.

The Monaco Grand Prix is the one race of the year that every driver dreams of winning. Like the Indy 500 or Le Mans, it stands alone, almost distinct from the sport from which it was born. A combination of precision driving, technical excellence and sheer bravery is required to win in Monte Carlo, facets which highlight the differences between the great and the good in Formula One.

Culture

The Fyre Festival was announced in December, advertised as a dreamy, deluxe, and highly Instagrammable music-festival experience that would take place over two weekends in the Bahamas, on a purportedly private island called Fyre Cay. The organizers promised attendees buried treasure, yacht parties, and concierge packages that cost up to fifty thousand dollars per person, but that’s not what they received…

Sotheby’s turned heads when it announced it would auction a 1973 Andy Warhol silkscreen from the artist’s Mao series, based on the portrait of the communist leader Mao Zedong who dominated much of 20th-century China. This Mao’s relatively swift return to the auction block—it last sold for $9.4 million in 2014 in London—isn’t what makes the sale news.

Julien’s Auctions is befittingly known as the world’s premier entertainment auction house. Opening its schedule this year, the Los Angeles–based auction house will offer a private collection of Patrick Swayze’s personal and professional items.

Phillips has assembled a strong lineup for its 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, scheduled for May 18 in New York. Leading the pack is Rosedale, a 1991 oil on canvas by the Scottish painter Peter Doig, who first delighted the auction world when his 1990–1991 work, White Canoe, sold in 2007 for $11.3 million, a then-record for a living European artist.

World News

Universities are vital for developing human capital. They are essential cogs in the global knowledge economy. Where once only available to few, higher education is now almost a requirement for entry to the middle class, and even more so to the ranks of the elite.

“As leaders, we have not addressed adequately how we are going to close the gap between rich and poor in the world and achieve meaningful, inclusive growth,” South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma told participants in Durban.

The president also said that more needed to be done globally to combat “economic crimes” such as money-laundering and profit-shifting.

Last year, it became clear how much things had changed. For the first time, the five most valuable companies in the world were all tech companies – Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook. So what is it that makes tech giants so different?

World Calendar

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Fashion

Hiroshi Fujiwara is one of the most recognizable names in street culture—that is to say, he’s highly regarded in certain discerning consumer circles. More known as a behind-the-scenes creative than a star designer, he’s quietly established a reputation for bringing streetwear to Japan and an aesthetic that blends a high-end sensibility with a certain edgy appeal.

To the untrained eye, the Met Gala might seem like any other red carpet extravaganza. But this is the one day of the year where a diverse melting pot of fashion’s elite, celebrities, and the uber-rich all come together to completely out-do each other with the most unwearable, bizarre and experimental of ‘fits.

Karl Lagerfeld’s Cruise 2018 effort was a heavily romanticized meditation on the imagined aesthetics of ancient Greece. Given Karl’s rich legacy at Chanel, there’s no doubt this designer will go down in fashion’s future history books as an eternal visionary, much like this particular aesthetic epoch he chose to mine.

Pure Luxe

Westport dubs its new 38 metre raised pilothouse yacht Black Gold the “next generation”, and certainly the amazing glass bridge would look at home on the Starship Enterprise. It’s a showpiece, but the other equally impressive innovations throughout are harder to spot at first glance.

Jacob & Co. has silenced much of the criticism with its new Astronomia Sky (about $690,000). It incorporates a sidereal-time display that tracks the movement of the stars with zodiac indications. No feature brings as much gravitas as the sidereal-time complication, which historically has been attempted on only the most complex and prestigious watches.

Luxury sports yachts? Mercedes-Benz, Aston Martin, and Bugatti have all launched or shown concepts of yachts that are slick, fast, and expensive. Now we can add Lexus to the gang with the Lexus Sports Yacht, which was recently introduced at the Miami International Boat Show.

Auto

The armored car industry has been popular for a while overseas, but recently we are seeing a huge increase in buyers in the United States as concerned citizens take action to protect themselves. One such company, International Armoring Corporation is leading the wave in converting luxury vehicles into the ultimate protection to help for an easy escape when a threat occurs.

The McLaren is clearly a more flamboyant car, with intricate details on the body that are not visible in photos, such as the separate panels at different depths that make up the door skins, as well as subtle aerodynamic paths for air to go around the car, such as through the door panels. Unlike the pricier McLaren 650S which is made up entirely of carbon-fibre and composite body panels, the 570S additionally uses a few aluminum panels to reduce costs.

The DB11 is the first of several new products to come as part of the company’s ‘Second Century’ plan. It marks the beginning of an all-new generation of cars, and is the most powerful and at the same time, the most efficient DB production model in Aston Martin’s history.

M’s Feature

It is now the month of May and it seems like we’re still in March. The weather has been much nicer, but it’s still very cold. Fortunately, May 8th was a good night for M Level and our event at The Baccarat Hotel. It was a clear night and the weather was great to be on the terrace. First, I’d like to thank all of our clients and partners who came out to the event. It was a lovely evening with Éclat Jewels, McLaren, and Prestige Automotive. This was one of the few times I was able to see everyone work together.

In case anyone wants to know why I always pick The Baccarat Hotel, it’s because they truly get it. They are one of the top glamorous 5 star hotels in New York that only cares about taking care of the guests at the highest level. Every time I looked around at the event, I saw people with glasses filled and amazing hors d’oeuvres being passed around. No one was left empty handed. As I said in our past couple of newsletters, it’s all about working as a team and this team is at the top of my list.

I think one of the most important things in having a luxury lifestyle and concierge company is that we truly want to understand our clients. Any well connected person can book you restaurant reservations, theatre tickets, or maybe even tackle a private jet booking. Very few companies, if any at all, are hands on with their clients. At M Level, we are there when you check into your hotel. We’re there to greet you before you leave on your private jet trip. We make sure that there is always someone available to take care of your needs the way you want.

I’m so proud to have the opportunity to work truly with the best and Monday night, they came out. From McLaren Automotive to Moet Hennessy and Dom Perignon, to the investment banks we work with and 365 Aviation who we partner with for private jets. This night was all about working together and having a good time. Why other companies don’t get this, I don’t know.

Lessons should be learned like companies such as Jean Georges. While the name is synonymous with 5 star dining, the service is more on the lines of corner bodega. When a client wants something, M Level goes out of their way to make sure that client gets whatever they want at the level of service they want and if we make a mistake it’s not on you. If Jean Georges makes a mistake, it’s on the client. That’s not something people on this level should deal with. Especially when you can charge $25 for cold pancakes. If luxury companies want to deal with truly affluent high net worth clientele, you should take basic lessons on how to service that clientele. Not that I’m not a big fan of Jean Georges because I am with all of his restaurants around the world, it’s just a few bad apples that spoil the apple pie.

The Baccarat Hotel, you have nothing to worry about. Continue doing what you’re doing because you’re truly fabulous.

I’m keeping it short this month because I had an unbelievable Monday night. For everyone who came out, thank you as we appreciate the support. To everyone who didn’t get a chance to hang with some of the Elite A List New Yorkers, maybe another time.

Culinary

The new Grand Velas Los Cabos puts a price tag of $25,000 on their ultimate taco at its fine-dining restaurant Frida, which we told you about back in February. But there were no takers until the pricey menu item was donated as a raffle item to benefit the Los Cabos Children’s Foundation last Friday at Grand Velas Los Cabos’ Sip & Savor event.

This is not a “dinner and an event” restaurant. Single Thread is the event. Achieving this feat requires much more than delicious food, which Single Thread delivers in an exquisite setting with seamless service. No detail has been overlooked.

Distilled in 1966, the year Paterson began his career, the Dalmore 50 Year Old was aged in ex-bourbon casks for 37 years, transferred into oloroso-sherry casks for 9 additional years, then matured in Colheita port pipes. In 2016 Paterson returned the single malt to American oak barrels before finishing it—perhaps a first for the industry—in Champagne casks.

The renowned and totally brand new Duba Plains Camp, which opened in March 2017, sits in the heart the Okavango Delta. A recent guest said it all, “I am not a religious person but I now understand that the Garden of Eden can now in fact be found at Duba Plains.”

Overseas visitors to the Indian city of Chandigarh, 150 miles north of Delhi, tend to be drawn by two attractions. The first is the Capitol Complex, a concentration of buildings by Le Corbusier, who in 1951 was commissioned to design a new capital for the Punjab – not least for four regional government institutions – and which last summer became a Unesco World Heritage Site.

Technology

In late 2016, WhatsApp decided to quietly improve the security of its iCloud backups, where messages and contacts are uploaded to Apple servers. Without any fanfare, it added a unique encryption key created by the WhatsApp app, rather than just relying on the iCloud Drive to protect customer data.

KryptAll™ has designed a patent pending solution to address the need for secure communications, from a firmware modified encrypted cellular phone to other KryptAll™ encrypted phones or any non-encrypted phones such as VoIP, cellular, or standard. KryptAll™ guarantees the privacy of the conversation if the target of the eavesdropping interception is using KryptAll™.

M Level Special Feature Featuring Éclat Jewels

Founded in 2003, Éclat Jewels is a leading purveyor of fine jewelry to the most exclusive retailers in the world. Éclat, which means a burst of light in French, is a name synonymous with quality, good taste and beauty. Each piece tells a narrative of whimsy and adventure in dazzling combinations of diamonds, sapphires, spinels, moonstones, and jade to name a few favorites. The result is a bold collection of colorful one-of-a-kind jewelry that is not only beautiful, but timeless.

For Éclat, elegance of design is as important as the quality of the gem stones used to create each one-of-a-kind piece. The collection ranges from evening classics to every day fun. However, unlike most jewelry companies, Éclat designs jewelry from the inside out. By this we mean that the stones are the main focus of each piece we design. We travel extensively to source the rarest and most precious stones, we then let the stones dictate the designs in order to best capture their beauty and uniqueness making each piece as unique as the person who wears it.